Prosecutors have gone to extraordinary lengths to document Paul Manafort's life of luxury. Here are the custom suits, lavish cars, and sprawling properties they tried to show the jury.

Ashley Collman

Aug 7, 2018, 22:14 IST

Prosecutors have gone to extraordinary lengths to document Paul Manafort's life of luxury. Here are the custom suits, lavish cars, and sprawling properties they tried to show the jury.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort is currently on trial for tax evasion, among other crimes, and prosecutors have been entertaining the jury with details of the political consultant's lavish lifestyle.

They say that Manafort earned more than $60 million working on political campaigns in Ukraine, and detailed the ways he used that money to buy a closet full of custom-made suits, luxury cars for his wife and kids, and homes up and down the East Coast.

But when one of his clients fled to Russia and the consulting work dried up, prosecutors say, Manafort lied about his wealth to avoid paying his taxes.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges. Here are the extravagant items prosecutors are accusing him of spending all that money on:

A focal point of Manafort's tax evasion trial has been his suit collection. Prosecutors seem to have taken photos of every expensive suit in Manafort's closet. They say he paid for his custom suits by transferring money from foreign bank accounts.

By keeping his wealth in shell companies, prosecutors say he was better able to hide just how much he was making — and spending — from the IRS. This snazzy fur coat was one of several introduced into evidence during Manafort's trial.

One of the more bizarre items that investigators found in their raid on his home was this $15,000 hooded jacket made of ostrich.

Maximillian Katzman, the former manager of Alan Couture in New York City, spoke on the second day of the trial and said Manafort was one of about 40 clients at his father's "luxury menswear boutique".

Katzman said Manafort spent $104,000 at the store in 2010 and $444,000 in 2013, all through wire transfers. Katzman said Manafort was the only customer he knew who paid this way.

Manafort was allegedly a top customer at the House of Bijan, a Beverly Hills clothing boutique that markets itself as the "world's most expensive store". Their CFO Ronald Wall said in court that Manafort spent $334,000 at the store between 2010 and 2012, wire transfers from foreign accounts.

Prosecutors are also accusing Manafort of paying for several cars with the money he earned in the Ukraine, which he largely kept in offshore accounts in Cyprus.

In 2012, prosecutors say his wife Kathleen bought a new Mercedes SL550, paying for part of it with a $124,000 wire transfer. A salesman at Mercedes Benz of Alexandria told the jury that it was "not unheard of" for customers to buy cars with wire transfers, but that it was "not common".

Manafort also helped his daughter Andrea pay for a Range Rover in 2012, with a nearly $84,000 wire transfer, according to documents prosecutors showed the jury.

When Andrea Manafort bought this home in Arlington, Virginia in 2012, she paid the down payment herself and her father paid the remaining $1.9 million with a wire transfer from a Cyprus-based account, her real estate dealer and former neighbor detailed in court.

An FBI agent spoke on the first day of the trial about raiding Manafort's Alexandria, Virginia condo last year. The agent noted on the stand that the apartment was a "large luxury unit".

A Hamptons landscaper testified that Manafort paid his company $450,000 to maintain his Bridgehampton property, trimming the 14-foot hedges and tending to the gardens — including a bed of red flowers in the shape of the letter "M".

Stephen Jacobsen, of home improvement company SP&C, told the court how Manafort hired his operation to renovate his Trump Tower apartment, his Brooklyn townhouse, and a home he had built for his brother-in-law. Jacobsen says Manafort paid for the work in wire transfers.

Manafort had several properties in New York that prosecutors say he acquired after becoming flush with cash from his Ukrainian work. This is the building in SoHo his wife purchased in 2012 for $2.85 million, allegedly using foreign accounts.

Shell companies in Cyprus allegedly transferred $300,000 so that Manafort could make a down payment on this townhouse in the upscale Brooklyn neighborhood of Carrol Gardens, according to court documents.

Manafort also paid a company $430,000 to renovate his Palm Beach Gardens, Florida home with money transferred from a Cyprus shell company, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have used all this lavish spending as a way to paint a picture for the jury of Manafort as a high roller, in order to win a conviction against him on bank and tax fraud charges.

But these detailed accounts of Manafort's spending habits didn't go over well with US District Judge T.S. Ellis III. "Enough is enough," he said at one point when the jury was out of the room. "We don't convict people because they have a lot of money to throw around."

Ellis wouldn't let the prosecution show photos of Manafort's many suits, properties, or cars in court, making them resort to describing the items instead. The trial wages on, and it will be up to the jury to decide if he's guilty or not.

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